CH 101

Legend has it that a long time ago, Cain, the origin of the vampire clan, was cursed to be the only vampire, and he felt lonely. So, he gave birth to offspring with the witch, Lilith. Cain and Lilith fell into eternal sleep soon after giving birth to thirteen offspring.

These thirteen offspring were the second generation of the vampire clan, who in turn gave birth to thirteen third generation vampires, the Antediluvian.

The third generation created the most glorious history in vampire history. They were the most powerful, the gods of war of the vampire clan. They did not care about bloodlines, and rose up to kill the second-generation vampires, putting them into eternal rest.

The Antediluvians, also known as the Ancients, created indelible legends among the vampires. However, they soon went separate ways, and created thirteen clans.

After that, they not only created their own offspring, but also began to embrace humans, turning them into servants of the vampires and making them their puppets.

With the passage of time and an insatiable greed that could not be filled, the Ancients were no longer satisfied with their small territories.

A new round of civil war began within the Ancients. In the midst of this civil war, nine of them fell into eternal sleep, and the most powerful one became the Vampire King, defeating all his peers and starting a centralized monarch system.

Three Ancients remained under the Vampire King, and they were crowned Princes who enjoyed three huge territories. Under the Princes came Elders, Lords, Dukes, Marquises, and Vincent, Barons, commoners, and servants in descending order.

The Vampire King had the most power in the vampire clan, with the three Princes next in line.

The thirteen clans had also been divided into three factions under the three Princes due to the eternal rest of the nine founders: the Conservatives, the Neutrals, and the Hawks (i.e. the Radicals).

After thousands of years, the vampires were now in their fifteenth generation, but the most powerful were still the Ancients. And because of the uncontrolled reproduction of the vampires, more mixed vampires started coming into existence.

As the years went by, the Vampire King and the three Princes were on the verge of eternal rest and gradually lost control over vampires.

Without the restrictions imposed by the Vampire King and the Princes, the vampire clan laws gradually became weaker, and chaos reigned. The vampires were now like wild horses that had gone off the rails and were constantly eroding and infesting the human world.

In addition to feeding on the fresh blood of human beings, they were constantly turning them into inhuman beings.

In order to fight against them, two professions of alchemists and priests emerged.

The alchemists used the method of violence against violence, summoning evil spirits from hell to tear the vampires apart and eat them, and the souls of those eaten by the evil spirits would be dissipated.

Contrary to the alchemists, the priests used the power of light, which has the power to purify not only living creatures, but also vampires. When the vampires are purified, their flesh dissipates with the wind, and their souls are freed.

Most alchemists were from private organizations, usually the Alchemist’s League, which had rewards for tasks that alchemists did, and they earned a living from this.

The priests were mostly from the royal orthodoxy and were formally trained and assigned to the various churches.

Alchemists were divided into: King’s Alchemists; Grand Alchemists; High Alchemists; Intermediate Alchemists; and Junior Alchemists.

The priests, on the other hand, were divided into: the Pope, twelve Cardinals, and bishops; senior priests; intermediate priests; and junior priests.

The Alchemist’s League and the Church were at odds with each other due to their different professional attributes and class status. Priests were lofty, and hated alchemists; alchemists, on the other hand, saw themselves as liberated by nature and resented the hypocrisy of the priests.

For a thousand years, the two groups fought each other while killing the vampires, without getting a clear winner.

…………

Under the huge sycamore tree, Yaphisor sat on the grass, hugging his knees, his eyes glancing through the History of the World in front of him, turning the pages with one hand and clutching the sterling silver cross necklace hanging from his neck with the other.

His brow furrowed, but Yaphisor’s thoughts, which seemed serious, flew off somewhere, as if they had grown wings.

Seeing his dazed look, Yaphisor’s friend Cousy was amused, and he secretly made a face behind his back, sneaking around to Yaphisor’s back with the intention of scaring him.

Just as his hand was about to touch Yaphisor’s shoulder, the dazed Yaphisor’s hand passed like a flash of light without looking back, and before Cousy knew it, he was thrown a few metres away from Yaphisor.

“Ouch, my priestly ass.” Cousy rubbed his throbbing buttocks, his face scrunched up into a twist.

Yaphisor froze, his hand clutching the crucifix tighter as he gave his hand a puzzled look and said helplessly, “I told you not to casually approach me, Priest Cousy.”

Cousy gave Yaphisor a disgruntled glare and grumbled, “Priest Yaphisor, why are you so strong these days? Have you been secretly practising some kind of alchemy? ”

“No, no, no, I don’t practice alchemy, I don’t know what’s going on either.”

He really didn’t know what was going on.

He didn’t even know who he was, okay?

When he woke up, there were memories of Yaphisor in his head, but it was like they were written on a piece of paper for him to just read.

He knew all about Yaphisor; he knew what Yaphisor’s best friend’s name was; he knew Yaphisor’s personality; he knew Yaphisor’s likes and dislikes; but all of this was just imprinted in his mind in the form of words; there was no image at all.

He felt that he was not Yaphisor, and he even felt that he did not belong in this world in the first place.

But even though he had this doubt, he was able to call out his close friend’s name naturally when he saw Cousy. He could also use light spells freely, but why did he think he was not Yaphisor?

Rubbing his head, which hurt slightly, Yaphisor gathered the indifference on his face and displayed a slightly timid expression, “I, I didn’t mean to. Are you alright?”

Cousy gave Yaphisor another puzzled look.

There had been something strange about Yaphisor for the past few days, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on what it was.

He was still the same cautious and timid Yaphisor, and he was still the same little priest with mediocre ability who could only recite a few low-level light spells.

Cousy shook his head to shake off the doubt in his head. Maybe Yaphisor was experiencing adolescence? He was already sixteen years old, anyway.

Covering his butt and walking up to Yaphisor, Cousy casually swiped the History of the World from in front of him and said, “Come on, the Lord Cardinal just sent out an emergency summons, I don’t know what the big deal is. All the other priests are there, so let’s hurry up too.”

Yaphisor searched his memories before recalling who this Cardinal was.

The city where Yaphisor was located was the central holy capital, which had a sanctuary in which, in addition to a pope, there was also a cardinal archbishop.

The Pope is usually reclusive and only appears once a year when the Divine Liturgy is held.

**Liturgy is the customary public worship performed by a religious group,**

His spokesman, Cardinal Calmeron, was responsible for all matters of the Holy City.

Just now, Cardinal Calmeron had issued an urgent summons for all the priests of the Holy City to assemble.

Thinking back on what had happened, Yaphisor’s slightly dazed eyes regained their sparkle for a few moments, and he looked up at Cousy, “Okay, let’s go.”

Cousy nodded and handed the book back to Yaphisor, who tossed it into the magic pouch at his waist, and the two of them headed for the sanctuary.

Yaphisor was now only a junior priest, while his friend Cousy had already passed the exam for an intermediate priest because he was so enlightened and had officially become an intermediate priest.

It was not too difficult for a junior priest to ascend to the intermediate level, but it is very difficult to ascend to the senior level, and there is an almost insurmountable gap from the senior level to the bishop, so most priests reach their cap at the senior level.

The two used an acceleration spell on their feet, and they arrived at the entrance of the sanctuary in just a few moments.

The square inside the temple was now occupied by priests. When the Cardinal saw that almost all the priests had arrived, he raised his scepter to the sky, and hundreds of huge translucent mirrors appeared in mid-air.

The mirrors all contained images of the local churches. These mirrors were for mutual vision, a type of light spell that allowed them to see each other’s side.

At that moment, the local churches had gathered their priests together and were waiting for the Chief Cardinal to give the word.

When the Chief Cardinal saw that all the churches had assembled, he cleared his throat and said, “My dear priests, the reason why we have gathered everyone today is that there is an extremely important matter.”

The Cardinal was already in his fifties, and the crow’s feet at the corners of his eyes trembled as he spoke. His eyes were kind, but his voice was serious, “The vampires are unscrupulous, and just last night, they had the audacity to take Grand Prince of Wales.”

At the Cardinal’s words, there was a shocked clamor among the priests.

The Cardinal reassured the crowd and continued, “I have called you all together today in the hope that you can set out to find the captured Grand Prince of Wales. To safeguard the honor of the royal family, you must do your utmost to bring back Grand Prince of Wales safely! ”

He paused for a moment before saying, “The Pope has also promised that whoever can bring the Grand Prince Wales back to the royal family will be the next Chief Cardinal!”

The Next Cardinal Chief!!!

Once again, there was a clamor, and more raucous screams erupted from the congregation of priests.

The emperor was old, the eldest prince, Wales, was a righteous man, and the acting emperor had ruled the country well, so he was the next rightful heir.

By taking the Prince of Wales captive, the vampires had taken the next king of the Empire captive.

This was why the Temple had offered such a generous reward. They were trying to save not just a human, an imperial son, but the future of a nation!